Getting Started

Quick-Start Rules
If you’ve not already done so, click on the quick-start rules graphic on the left to download the free PDF that’ll have you tossing dice and running the shadows in no time. Once you’ve tackled the quick-start rules you’ll be ready to dive into game.

Diving In!
Catalyst Game Labs recommends buying the items listed below, in the order they are presented (all these products can be ordered through your local game store, or directly online from Catalyst if they’re not available locally).

“I honestly cannot say enough positive thing about the quality of both products [Beginner Box/Runner’s Toolkit: Alphaware]. Catalyst has truly outdone itself; I never would’ve imagined that the world of Shadowrun could possibly seem as exciting, engaging and deeply nuanced to me now as it did in my early teens, and yet here we are!”

The Shadowrun Beginner Box Set is the first-ever introductory box set for one of the most enduring and popular role-playing settings in history. The box provide hours of excitement and adventure on the mean streets of the Sixth World, giving players to chance to inhabit enthralling characters and show the world what they’ve got.

With pre-generated characters, a simplified ruleset, a ready-to-run adventure, a solo adventure for one character, adventure hooks, and non-player characters to throw into any situation, the Beginner Box Set has everything players need to dive into the fantasy-infused cyberpunk of Shadowrun. Including, of course, a handful of six-sided dice. Players can take on the role of a powerful street samurai, a spell-slinging shaman, a charismatic troll, and more as they struggle against the mighty powers of the world and look for ways to survive—or even thrive.

With details on the backstory and history that made the setting a legend, the Shadowrun Beginner Box Set is a complete tool for players looking to launch on new and extraordinary adventures. The nuyen and the glory are yours for the grabbing. Go get ’em!

eBook Availability
The Shadowrun Digital Tools Box combines elements from both the Shadowrun Beginner Box Set and Shadowrun Runner's Toolkit Alphaware into a single digital purchase.

Shadowrun Digital Tools Box is available from the following eBook/PDF vendors:

Have you tackled the Beginner Box Set and are ready to move up in the Sixth World?

Are you a game master easy to give Shadowrun a shot, and you want a few extra tools at your disposal from the first toss of your dice?

Do you play Shadowrun now, and are you looking for a set of tools that’ll allow you to easily introduce new gamers to your favorite RPG at your local game store or hangout?

Say yes to any of this? Then Runner’s Toolkit: Alphaware is the box set for you.

Designed as the perfect stepping-stone between the Shadowrun Beginner Box Set and Shadowrun, Fifth Edition, this box can fill a number of roles. Whether you’re looking for more adventures and options to move beyond the Beginner Box Set, laying the groundwork for your gaming group to move fully onto Shadowrun, Fifth Edition, or providing adventures, maps, and other tools to use in conjunction with the core rulebook, you’ll find this kit invaluable.

Runner’s Toolkit: Alphaware contains:

Fully detailed character booklets with statistics, background information, preferred tactics, and a solo adventure for each character;

Rules of the Street, a rulebook with spells, guns, combat options, and everything that makes Shadowrun great;

Plots and Paydata, a book with a collection of fully detailed adventures, a trove of non-player characters, and hooks for future adventures;

Eight double-sided maps to help players and gamemasters track the action;

A handful of six-sided dice;

And more tools to make playing and running the game easier!

eBook Availability
The Shadowrun Digital Tools Box combines elements from both the Shadowrun Beginner Box Set and Shadowrun Runner's Toolkit Alphaware into a single digital purchase.

Shadowrun Digital Tools Box is available from the following eBook/PDF vendors:

There are cracks in the world. They’re slender, dark, and often cold, but they are the only things that keep you hidden. Keep you alive. They are the shadows of the world, and they are where you live.

You are a shadowrunner, thriving in the margins, doing the jobs no one else can. You have no office, no permanent home, no background to check. You are whatever you make yourself. Will you seek justice? Sow seeds of chaos? Sell out to the highest bidder? It’s up to you, but this much is certain—if you do nothing, the streets will eat you alive.

You can survive—even flourish—as long as you do what it takes. Sacrifice part of your soul for bleeding-edge gear. Push the limits of your will learning new and dangerous magic. Wire yourself into the Matrix, making your mind one with screaming streams of data. It’ll cost you something—everything does—but you can make it worth the price.

Shadowrun, Fifth Edition is the newest version of one of the most popular and successful role-playing worlds of all time—a fusion of man, magic and machine in a dystopian near-future. With rules for character creation, magic, combat, Matrix hacking, rigging, and more, you have everything you need to face the challenges of the Sixth World.

Every shadowrunner knows the value of good information. The right fact, the perfect piece of data, can be the difference between success and failure on a run, between life and death. And in the right hands, information can be more than valuable-it can be powerful.

The Shadowrun Gamemaster Screen provides a collection of useful tables from Shadowrun, Fifth Edition for ease of reference in game play. With range tables, action lists, combat modifiers, social modifiers, and more, this is a critical game aid to make your Shadowrun games faster and more fun. And to provide that all-important secrecy so that the players don’t know what you're up to. This screen is for use with Shadowrun, Fifth Edition.

Availability
Unable to find the book at your local game store? Order direct:

Federal Agent Seth Dietrich has a secret. Actually, multiple secrets. One of them made him go underground, hiding from the people desperate to learn just how much he knows. And the other is keeping him from surfacing, because he’s found he can’t even trust himself.

If Dietrich were in his right mind, he’d cover his tracks like a pro, and no one would find him. Especially not shadowrunners getting their feel for life on the streets. But he’s not in his right mind, which means a group of shadowrunners finds themselves in possession of some very valuable information—information the highest powers in Seattle want for themselves. What started as a simple job turns into a scramble for their lives, a scramble that could become profitable if the runners play their cards right.

Splintered State is an introductory adventure for Shadowrun, Fifth Edition. Whether you have played previous Shadowrun editions or are new to the setting, this adventure helps players and gamemasters learn the new rules while wrapping themselves in the intrigue, excitement, and danger of running in Seattle.

Every step, every advantage, every millisecond counts. The streets of the Sixth World are mean, and if they want to stay alive, shadowrunners need every advantage they can get to gain a step on the opposition. Fortunately, Run Faster is full of them. With it, you can learn about more metatypes for characters, including hobgoblins, giants, centaurs, and sasquatch; acquire new qualities, such as Disgraced, Hawk Eye, and Lightning Reflexes; and, if you dare, dabble with the dangerous and deadly Infected.

Run Faster also has advice on fleshing out characters of different metatypes, expanded contact and lifestyle rules, and alternate character creation methods to help ensure that players can build exactly the character they want.

All these options make Run Faster a crucial companion to players who want to get the most out of their Shadowrun, Fifth Edition core rulebook.